Ay, sin-begotten, hear the curse; Not mine--not hers--but the fatal Law! "Who bids one suffer, shall suffer worse; Who scourges, himself shall be scourgèd raw! "For the thoughts ye think, and the deeds ye do, Move on, and on, till the flood is high, And the dread dam bursts, and the waves roar through, Hurling a cataract dirge to the sky! "To-night ye are deaf to the beggar's prayer; To-morrow the thieves shall batter your wall! Ye shall feel the weight of a starved child's care When your warders under the Mob's feet fall! "'Tis the roar of the whirlwind ye invoke When ye scatter the wind of your brother's moans; 'Tis the red of your hate on your own head broke, When the blood of the murdered spatters the stones! "Hark ye! Out of the reeking slums, Thick with the fetid stench of crime, Boiling up through their sickening scums, Bubbles that burst through the crimson wine, "Voices burst--with terrible sound, Crying the truth your dull souls ne'er saw! _We_ are _your_ sentence! The wheel turns round! The bastard spawn of your bastard law!" This is bastard: That Man should say How Love shall love, and how Life shall live! Setting a tablet to groove God's way, Measuring how the divine shall give! * * * * * O, Evil Hearts! Ye have maddened me, That I should interpret the voice of God! Quiet! Quiet! O angered Sea! Quiet! I go to her blessed sod! * * * * * Mother, Mother, I come to you! Down in your grasses I press my face! Under the kiss of their cold, pure dew, I may dream that I lie in the dear old place! Mother, sweet Mother, take me back, Into the bosom from whence I came! Take me away from the cruel rack, Take me out of the parching flame! Fold me again with your beautiful hair, Speak to this terrible heaving Sea! Over me pour the soothing of prayer, The words of the Love-child of Galilee: "=Peace--be still=!" Still,--could I but hear! Softly,--I listen.--O fierce heart, cease! Softly,--I breathe not,--low,--in my ear,-- Mother, Mother--I heard you!--=Peace=! =Enterprise, Kansas,= January, 1891. HYMN (This hymn was written at the request of a Christian Science friend who proposed to set it to music. It did not represent my beliefs either then or since, but rather what I wish might be my beliefs, had I not an inexorable capacity for seeing things as they are,--a vast scheme of mutual murder, with no justice anywhere, and no God in the soul or out of it.)